SMCI – Best Blogs of January

SMCI – Best Blogs of January

Our Best Blogs of January includes management tips, a story on the tech women of Harvey Mudd College and the tale of teetotalers in the tech world. That’s a lot of great stuff to read while waiting in line to use that Chili’s gift card.

New year, new tactics

It’s a new year and for many managers, that means trying out new ideas to improve their leadership style and their productivity.

If you’re looking to hire vibrant, open-minded workers in 2017, some managers have reported success by reviewing resumes from the bottom up. According to Adam Grant, a professor at the renowned Wharton business school, looking at applicants’ hobbies, interests and personal achievements is a great way to tell if they have a range of experiences, a crucial asset for being creative and innovative.

Also for 2017, managers might look to better manage disruptors in their midst. Many so-called ‘troublemakers’ at companies are in fact valuable team members. Tech executive Bethanye McKinney Blount puts these troublemakers into four categories: the hermit, the nostalgia junkie, the trend chaser and the smartest person in the room. These men and women need to be embraced and have their disruptive energies channeled in the right direction.

The tech women of Harvey Mudd

In colleges and universities across America, an overwhelming majority of computer science majors are men. Not at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA., where 55 percent of people enrolled in a computer science major are female.

Ten years ago, just 10 percent of computer science majors at Harvey Mudd were women, and observers say the massive shift is due to taking on an unorthodox approach to teaching computer science.

Using student surveys, in-class observations and some social experimentation, professors discovered three major reasons female students did not enroll in the Harvey Mudd computer science program: They didn’t think they could be proficient at it, they couldn’t envision fitting in the culture and they just weren’t interested in the subject matter.

In the reimagined curriculum, assignments involving arcane code were replaced with fun group puzzles and the development of 3-D graphics so students could make their own games. After freshman year, students were given study opportunities, which included using computer algorithms to address questions about evolution and investigate genetic sequences.

Teetotalers in the boozy tech industry

The tech industry is known for a desire to take the stuffiness out of office culture, and for many companies, that means booze, booze and more booze.

If you enjoy the occasional drink, you might be thinking – what’s the problem? However, many people in the tech industry either don’t drink – due to religious or personal reasons – or don’t really want to be showered in alcohol every time something good happens.

It turns out the tech industry is starting to hear these voices, and many companies are pumping the brakes, instead of just the keg.